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Change Lion Finder Sidebar icons to color version?

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Revival Cr8tive

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
67
0
Does anyone know how to get rid of the silhouetted icons in the sidebar of the Finder. Replacing them with the colour version? I can see the colour version when I right click the icon and click 'get info' - however there's no option to switch the finder side bar icon... grrr.... Can you help?

I don't understand why Apple would use silhouettes of the icons here and then not follow the same standard throughout the Finder... Where's the consistency?

Any help would be appreciated!

:cool:
 
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N

niteshade

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2011
2
1
Chicago, IL
yes, this bugs me as well.

With the Lion release, Apple has seen fit to reduce the color palette of Mac OSX, and in the process, has removed the ability to customize icons in the sidebar of Finder windows. More specifically, you can still customize icons in the Finder, but Lion overrides them in Finder sidebars, presumably for aesthetic reasons.

To me this seems a backwards step for interface usability... I now find the icons in the sidebar pretty useless, as I can't recognize at a glance which I am looking for. What before was immediate recognition, now is four or five seconds of reading location names. It's pretty aggravating, and tears me out of my flow.

If anybody has a fix for this, 3rd party or otherwise, I'm pretty interested.
 
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K

Kanunu

macrumors 6502
Apr 18, 2009
262
6
Hawaii
Drive icons too

In additions to the shading of the icons in Favorites, the icons that were next to my internal drive, external drives, and CD drive are gone too. While they could duplicate they were different enough to make finding the right drive a lot easier.

I want them back and I want them in color.
 
iVeBeenDrinkin'

iVeBeenDrinkin'

macrumors 65816
Oct 17, 2008
1,291
4
Lion is almost half the size of SL because they cut out a lot of fat. Do you really need colored sidebar icons? I mean really?
 
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theverant

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2011
2
0
Yes, I really do need to use whatever icons I want. I don't need Teh Steve or anyone else telling me how to use my computer. Allowing for custom icons would not add noticeable space to the 10.7 installer. I want to use my own icons. Ubuntu has had the functionality of adding custom system icons sets since forever and their installer fits on a CD.

Makes no sense that Apple is making their OS LESS customizable, not more, like they should. :confused:

iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
Lion is almost half the size of SL because they cut out a lot of fat. Do you really need colored sidebar icons? I mean really?
Click to expand...

PS. I signed up to Macrumors just to reply to your asinine line of questioning. Aren't you special!
 
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theverant

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2011
2
0
It's a simple and core functionality that Apple should be able to handle on their own. I shouldn't need to go to a secondary developer just to make my OS whole. Or am I just crazy to expect this? :D

Supershuttle said:
Maybe someone will make an application to do that.
Click to expand...
 
chrisjk

chrisjk

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2009
5
4
iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
Lion is almost half the size of SL because they cut out a lot of fat. Do you really need colored sidebar icons? I mean really?
Click to expand...

I don't really NEED a Mac! If I wanted to be as pissed off as I am now, I would have had a PC running Windows.

I am hating this abandonment of folk - who let's face it - have been by and large evangelists for the company because Apple was concerned about the user experience ON THE MAC. Sure the iPad and iPhone are great but they are different platforms.
 
r6girl

r6girl

Administrator/Project Manager
Staff member
Sep 6, 2003
1,732
79
New England
This bugs me too. With colored icons I was able to more quickly identify apps and folders and it takes me slightly longer to find what I'm looking for now. It sounds like a minor issue but it does make a difference in how easily I can get around in Lion.
 
ViciousShadow21

ViciousShadow21

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2009
2,489
0
To your left or right
LiteIcon has an option to change the sidebar icons. So if you can find the original or a set that you like you can easily change them.

@chrisjk i do find it hard to believe that not having color sidebar icons is enough to drive you back to a PC. i mean thats just ridiculous.

@theverant yes you are crazy to expect this. If you want the world to be perfect you should do something about it. Joining forums just to try and embarass someone is not a step in the right direction. You just end up sounding like a jerk
 
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R

Revival Cr8tive

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
67
0
Responses - wow...

Well I didn't know this was going to such a popular thread.... As the OP I'd like to take a few moments to respond to some of the comments...

iVeBeenDrinkin' said:
Lion is almost half the size of SL because they cut out a lot of fat. Do you really need colored sidebar icons? I mean really?
Click to expand...

I'm not that bothered about the total size of the OS... I just downloaded it from MAS and installed it in about an hour. Plus I have probably the slowest internet connection on broadband possible! OS Size.. Who cares!


JohnDoe98 said:
Does it really use up a lot of resources? Really?
Click to expand...

All the icons are actually included in the OS... Right click on a grey icon in side bar and the Get Info box has the icon displayed in it - In colour... So clearly its their! They've just tried to be over slinky in my opinion... Plus the Air Drop Icon is awesome and I'd like to see it in colour in my Finder sidebar... Is that a big ask?


tblrsa said:
Next version of OSX will be fully monochrome. :)
Click to expand...

That would be horrific ;-)


mcdj said:
You can have any color, as long as it's gray.
Click to expand...

Lol.. Clearly...


So who knows any Mac Devs who can make the tweak required? You could probably resell it in the Mac App Store...

Any thoughts/suggestions anyone?
 
chrisjk

chrisjk

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2009
5
4
ViciousShadow21 said:
@chrisjk i do find it hard to believe that not having color sidebar icons is enough to drive you back to a PC. i mean thats just ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Firstly, I didn't say that and secondly, there are many other issues which annoy me apart from the colors! I was referring to my general unhappiness with this release. It has brought me no discernible benefits, just a lot of pain.
 
D

douglasf13

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2010
1,775
1,077
Bring back the color

This is driving me nuts at work, and the grey sidebar icons are nearly bad enough to send me back to SL.
 
C

codymac

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2009
449
2
Revival Cr8tive said:
All the icons are actually included in the OS... Right click on a grey icon in side bar and the Get Info box has the icon displayed in it - In colour... So clearly its their! They've just tried to be over slinky in my opinion... Plus the Air Drop Icon is awesome and I'd like to see it in colour in my Finder sidebar... Is that a big ask?
Click to expand...

I find it funny that they're in color under Finder's Go menu.
 
M

Merkyworks

macrumors 6502
Oct 14, 2008
375
37
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

ViciousShadow21 said:
LiteIcon has an option to change the sidebar icons. So if you can find the original or a set that you like you can easily change them.

@chrisjk i do find it hard to believe that not having color sidebar icons is enough to drive you back to a PC. i mean thats just ridiculous.

@theverant yes you are crazy to expect this. If you want the world to be perfect you should do something about it. Joining forums just to try and embarass someone is not a step in the right direction. You just end up sounding like a jerk
Click to expand...

For all the people that are saying "who cares if the side bar has color" and "do you really need it".

I would say that having a little color associated with an icon or folder makes it's much quicker to hone in on its location among the other icons or folders that surround it.

Secondly what makes no since is that in previous versions of OS X this functionality was there and it would appear as though the icons and folder in Lion do in fact have color but the OS is making them grey while being displayed in finder. So the argument of larger OS size is irrelevant and actually making finder all grey is another level of change the OS has to make and as such means more code and a lager OS size
 
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